Yadkin's Amish community makes for memorable day trip

Perhaps some R&L readers are staying a little closer to home this vacation season. If so, there are a number of places worth visiting that are both interesting and close.

Windsor's Crossroads and Hamptonville are unincorporated communities in southwestern Yadkin County, near the Iredell County line. They are probably best known for their connection with two stores that sell Amish produce and merchandise.

The Hamptonville community was settled around 1783 and chartered in 1818 with the focus of the community being Flat Rock Baptist Church, one of the oldest western North Carolina Baptist churches.

The Amish established a small community there in the 1980s. Currently, there are about 31 New Order Amish families in and around Hamptonville.

I had been to The Community Market, formerly known as The Country Market and The Little Country Market, several years ago, and July 3 seemed a good time to go again. My wife Judy and I went north on Highway 21, and after only one stop to ask for directions (to refresh my memory), we found the store.
The store, referred to locally as The Amish Store, was opened by Sam Yoder, who sold the business around 1995.

Most of the store's shelves were bare the day we were there. Jacob Messick, 17, working behind the counter, explained that there had been several tour buses to stop there recently and the occupants of the buses had descended on the store much as the locusts had descended on Egypt in the Bible, leaving nothing behind.

Jacob said there would be another truck with merchandise from Pennsylvania within a few days to replenish his stock. He said the truck usually arrives on Wednesdays, but it is sometimes Friday before all the merchandise gets on the shelves.

Jacob and his parents, Kenneth and Teresa Messick, are not Amish, although some of their merchandise is produced by Pennsylvania Amish, and they do stock some locally-
produced Amish baked goods and produce.

Judy and I purchased a loaf of sourdough bread, a product of Hostetler's Home Bakery in Hamptonville, to go with our Fourth of July dinner, and I got a jar of The Dutch Kettle's jalapeno pepper jelly, also a Hamptonville product.

The store usually has a rainbow of jellies that you might not be able to find at the local supermarket. In addition, it has market bulk spices, woven baskets, hoop cheeses, and, usually, local produce. There was no produce that day, but whether this was due to the tour bus or the dry weather, I do not know.

I hoped to get a photo of a picturesque Amish buggy jouncing along to accompany this story, but the drivers must have heard I was coming and hid. I did, however, get a photo of one of the state highway signs showing an Amish buggy and a buggy with the motor (horse) removed.

I also took some photos of the Windsor's Crossroads Community Building, built in 1915, an excellent architectural find that would lend itself well as a setting for a movie. Next door to the two-story former school is an arbor. This building has been the site of music on Friday nights for the last decade or so. Musicians play in the arbor and on the grounds in good weather and only resort to moving into the old academy building when it's nasty outside. The bluegrass music sessions are organized by the local Ruritan club. A note on the door, however, stated that the sessions had been discontinued due to poor attendance, as of July 1. Perhaps they will resume with the arrival of cooler weather.

There is a second store in Hamptonville that sells Amish goods, the Shiloh General Store, established in 2004, run by Tom and Sandy Coletti, who are Amish.

Shiloh General Store, about a mile and a half from the Community Market, has its own bakery and sells deli sandwiches from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and features hand-dipped ice cream made by Amish in Florida. Their meats and cheeses come from Amish in Ohio, and they also sell local produce in season. The store also has Amish-made quilts and some locally-made craft items.

I got a roast beef and swiss sandwich on whole wheat with lettuce and tomato for lunch at the store's deli/bakery and got a jar of sweet potato butter made in Ohio and a loaf of savory sun-dried tomato bread made in the store.

While you are in the area and if you feel like doing a bit more driving, there are five or six vineyards located within a five-mile radius of Hamptonville, all part of the Swan Creek Wine Trail.
For more information, go to www.swancreekvineyards.com or for a larger view of the area's vineyards, go to www.yadkinvalleywinetrail.com.